By Nick Timm
Special to Okanogan Living
Hey, I’m Nick Timm and I’m your new Okanogan County commissioner. I’m looking forward to serving you for as long as you’ll have me - I know I haven’t even started the job yet and I’m already thankful for my position and the ability it affords me to interact with people of all walks of life in Okanogan County.
My campaign staff joked that “Everyone knows a Timm!” and that would be a big help to the election, but I knew that although many people knew my family, they didn’t yet know me. I resolved early on to be on the road during the campaign season, as much as possible and to reach out to people on social media to show you all who I am. In hindsight, that worked extremely well. Getting to know everyone I did was the highlight of my 2024 - you all are amazing people. The passion, thought and spine you put into each day clarified my personal wish to serve as best as I can and to honor the faith you all put in me on November 5 on the night of the election.
For those I didn’t meet, didn’t bump into or couldn’t track down I hope this brief introduction will be enough to offer a glimpse into my life and what I stand for.
I was born at Mid-Valley Hospital on Dec. 31 1991, about 10 minutes to midnight. My mom and dad joked that they had to choose between the tax deduction for 1991 or a bunch of diapers for being born the next year. As usual, paying down the taxes won and I was home after the new year, at our families ranch along the Columbia River.
We spent the first few years out there - chasing cows, feeding animals, branding - you name it. The ranch is a large, year round operation and it takes a lot of hands to keep things going. I remember, even being that young, that I thought it was a pretty good way to live life and I wouldn’t have an issue spending my time ranching.
Life, though, always has its quirks.
My dad, striking out on his own, purchased an orcharding outfit from G.A. Smallwood in the mid '90s and we moved from the ranch to what is now Smallwoods Farms just south of Okanogan. I spent much of the remainder of my childhood running through the cherry orchards around the house, playing in the river and helping (as best I could at that age) at the fruit stand that is still there today. Dennis and Mallory Carlton have done an amazing job with the place and I smile every time I walk in to get a sandwich or grab some produce.
Although the happiness we felt running the orchard was amazing, it wasn’t meant to last. NAFTA was signed into effect and in a few short years the fruit market had the bottom knocked out from underneath it as under priced juice concentrate flooded into the United States and we, along with many other small to mid sized orchards, went bankrupt overnight.
The next few years were a whirlwind as we moved from house to house, making due with the jobs we could find but always staying in Okanogan County until my mother moved to the coast for better job opportunities. The ranch and agriculture were never far from our minds though and we spent most weekends, holidays and any free time we had out at the ranch.
Dad and I remained in Okanogan while my sisters went with my mom to live in Toutle, Wash., at the foot of Mount St. Helens, where my mom’s family lived and worked as loggers, farmers, hunters and school teachers and administrators.
I graduated in 2010 and having grown restless in Okanogan County I signed up for the military as many men in my family had done. My mother’s father, Fred Winningham - former Stampede president and DNR employee, served in the Navy during the Cuban Missile Crisis and was a radioman on the blockade keeping Russia out of our waters. My father’s father, Fred Timm served in World War II as a drill sergeant and later as a quad-gunner and squad leader in The Pacific Theater where he served until the bombs were dropped and the war ended in September of 1945. My great uncle Bob flew bombers during World War II and later married an Egyptian beauty queen, aunt Nazlee. My uncle Rick served as Air Cav during Vietnam. And my Great Grandpa Gene (I carry his name as my middle name) served in the Coast Guard in the earlier part of the 1900s.
In late 2010 I departed for San Antonio, Texas, where I went through basic training, and then to follow on training for my job all over the United States as a C-17A Loadmaster. Towards the end of 2012 I arrived at my first permanent duty station, Charleston Air Base, in Charleston, S.C. There, I spent the next few years learning my job a bit better and was selected to go to Air Drop school for our airframe. I excelled at that portion of the job and soon was working with elite units around the world. Here, I met my amazing wife Lisa, where she served as a Loadmaster as well. We have been together over ten years and are looking forward to the next ten and what adventures those years hold.
My next duty station, outside of many deployments and TDY’s was Joint Base Lewis Mcchord and I served the remainder of my enlistment there, while also attending college and starting and running a hard cider company with one of my college professors.
I graduated college and spent the next few years going back and forth between flying and living in Okanogan, helping where I could, as my dad worked his weed and pest control business.
Fast forward to 2020 and what was to be, although I didn’t know it at the time, my last deployment. Covid hit and a normally stressful deployment turned into something from a nightmare - I’m sure everyone who’s reading this can relate.
Midway through the deployment I received a call from Lisa saying that my dad wasn’t doing too well and we should probably consider moving back to Okanogan to help him run the business as his health had taken a downturn. Doctors told us it was Covid, but a cancer screen later determined he had Stage 4 lung cancer and didn’t have long to live.
I finished my term in the Air Force and returned home to Okanogan, leaving the life Lisa and I had built, to help keep the family businesses and properties afloat while taking care of my dad and helping get him through chemo.
In the early morning hours of September 2021, my dad succumbed to his battle with cancer and passed away. We cremated him and have yet, at the time of this publication, to scatter him at the spot he’d designated as his final resting place.
Lisa and I were largely on our own. My sisters and mother and my mom’s dad and stepmom (Fred and Leslie) had moved from Washington to Arizona. We had a business to run, properties to care for and a town much in need of help to recover after the pandemic. We had seen much in helping dad get through chemo, how understaffed our medical field is and how in need of an update their equipment is; how unhappy many people were; how things were just getting tougher every day. It was plain to see we had a lack of things to do in the area and we could not retain people to stay and help Okanogan County grow - It seemed we were quickly becoming a place you were only ever from and not a place where you stayed to grow a family and live.
Agriculture is the backbone of our community, but at this time we can’t keep young people interested in sticking around and working the farm, orchard or ranch. We can’t get new people to the area to work and many jobs vital to our communities' success go unfilled month after month. Housing is a challenge - people find themselves looking for rentals and can’t find anything aside from the bare minimum. Food is expensive, gas even more so, legislation is coming down which effects each and every one of us and leaves our rural lifestyle even harder to maintain.
We have many challenges to meet, but I know, as a community and as a County we will not only meet those challenges, but we will overcome and emerge on the other side better in all respects.
The next four years are pivotal for Okanogan County. We need more middle tier housing for new families and young people; we need more things for people to do to retain the young members of our society before they jet off to the big city; we must get vital resources to our medical and EMS communities to better meet the changing health care needs of an aging populace; we must contest and try to positively impact top-down legislation coming out of Olympia.
I was elected in a landslide and I will work every day to honor the faith the people of Okanogan County put in me. Every day is a chance to push against the issues just mentioned and many more - I made a promise to stay in touch with people after the election and to that end I want everyone to know my office is always open for folks to come in and chat. You’ll hear from me on the radio at regular intervals to give updates about the going ons in our county and you’ll always have access to my Facebook page where you can catch up on what is going on in our community.
Strong Roots - Bold Future.♦
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